Approximately 1300 people in Maine live with HIV/AIDS, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. Their needs — as well as the importance of prevention, so as not to add to those numbers — will be highlighted at the State House on December 1, World AIDS Day, with (hopefully) more than 1300 individualized postcards made by Mainers.

The Maine AIDS Alliance and the Maine College of Art are spearheading what organizer (and MECA alum) Katie Diamond calls the “designed-and-signed” campaign — placing postcard kits in local galleries and art spaces (including the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, the North Star, Aucocisco Galleries, and the USM Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity), in the hopes that citizens will use the provided supplies to decorate the front of the cards, then sign the backs, which contain “a message to decision makers urging them to continue to support Maine HIV/AIDS services.”

The AIDS Alliance will bring the cards (the 2009 version of the AIDS quilt!) to Augusta on December 1, while HIV/AIDS organizations worldwide promote this year’s World AIDS Day theme: “universal access and human rights,” with the focus on getting antiretroviral therapy to those who need it in low- and middle-income countries.

The postcards will be available at participating locations on First Friday, and through November.

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